Job summary
The Cancer Psychological Care Team is now a permanently established service at King’s College Hospital, originating from a programme of work in partnership with Macmillan and in relation to the Kings cancer priorities to improve cancer patients experience. This includes improving access and support to patients with psychological issues through the provision of clinical services to patients as well as liaising with community services as appropriate.The main objective of this post will be to contribute to the provision of an integrated cancer psychology service across KCH.
The post-holder will join the Cancer Psychological Care Team at KCH, being a core member of the team, and assisting practitioner psychologists in the delivery of a specialist applied psychology service in cancer care. The main base will be near to Denmark Hill, but some travel is expected between sites, as needed.
Main duties of the job
- To assist practitioner psychologists in the delivery of a specialist applied psychology service in cancer care.
- To provide clinical work as required by the service, under the clinical and professional supervision of a practitioner psychologist.
- To assist in clinical and service-related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, development of audit and/or research projects, teaching, group work, and project work.
- To ensure that systems are in place for the effective administration and management of the patient referral process. This will include providing key support for the collation and screening of new referrals, requesting additional referral information if required, presenting referrals in the team meeting, providing necessary telephone triage, and managing outcomes.
- To attend and contribute to weekly service level meetings, and multi-disciplinary team meetings.
- To work at appropriate levels of independence, following clinical guidelines and the policies and procedures of the service, and seeking help from clinical/professional supervisor or manager as required.
Person Specification
Education and Qualifications
Essential
- A First-class or Upper-second-class Bachelors degree with Honours in Psychology that is accredited by the British Psychological Society and confers the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society.
Knowledge and Experience
Essential
- Sufficient post-graduate experience of psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs to be able to work clinically without direct supervision.
- Post-graduate experience of conducting research projects or audits.
- Experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities. This may have been gained through work, research, volunteering and / or lived experience.
- Graduate level knowledge of psychological research methodology and statistical analysis.
- Good theoretical knowledge of the problems experienced by and needs of adults with cancer and of methods of assessment and treatment.
- Awareness of racial and diversity issues through attendance of relevant training.
Desirable
- Post-graduate experience of psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs specifically related to cancer.
- Experience of working in multidisciplinary teams with colleagues from a range of disciplines.
- The Trust encourages and welcomes applications from people with lived experience of mental health challenges. We see this as valuable and recognise the positive impact this experience can have on the work we do
Skills and Competencies
Essential
- Skills in relevant psychological assessment and interventions that enable working independently as a pre-qualified practitioner with clinical supervision.
- Well-developed verbal and written communication skills including communicating complex, sensitive or contentious information to clients, families and colleagues.
- Consultation skills to work with the multi-professional team or other professional groups within own service.
- Skills in providing teaching and training to other professional groups.
- Well-developed IT skills including entry and analysis of research data.
- Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles.
- Ability to identify and follow relevant clinical governance procedures.
- Ability to maintain concentration and to remain in restricted positions for long periods during observations, assessments and psychological interventions.
- Ability to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour.
- Ability to communicate complex, sensitive or contentious information to people who may be aroused, or hostile to the information, or have severe impediments to understanding.
- Ability to manage verbal aggression and hostility directed at self.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Closing Date: 11 October 2026
